hummingcrow: one squall voice » antidote

Productive things

cherylcolan — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:52:58 +0000

Over the last three years I’ve found myself thinking “how can I take time to make a blog post or a video when I have so many other things on the to-do list?” But in the year-end life evaluation process, I find that sharing my life is still important to me. Even if the things that are important to me or the things that I’m doing change. So here is what I’m doing today:

made my own glass cleaner and used it to clean mirrors
spent a few hours planning the great declutter project of 2011
clean my bathrooms
make soup from leftover beef bones
make bread (mmmm warm bread)
vacuum up cobwebs and dust elephants

Little House in the Suburbs has lovely simple recipes for cleaning products in her third post in her Home Management Notebook series. I can vouch that the glass cleaner works great, even when you scent it with a few drops of lavender essential oil. I’m going to try all the other Homemade Cleaning Solutions on her list as well. I can’t make my husband stop buying expensive brand name cleaners, but since I’m normally the only one doing any cleaning, I can just keep saying “nope honey, we haven’t run out of it yet, no need to buy more.” I’ve reached the end of 2010 more committed than ever to dropping out of the market for as many products as possible.

My latest bout of anti-consumerism was brought on by the great o.b. tampon debacle, which you can search on your own or wait for the full-blown post I will eventually write about it. You can also choose not to hear about it at all, filing it under the TMI category.

Anyway, that’s my sharing for the day. I find when I’m doing other productive things, sharing feels productive too.

Broom Game

cherylcolan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:53:09 +0000

A couple of years ago, I saw The Broom Game, and I’ve wanted to try it ever since the first viewing. This July 4, I convinced my mom to play it with me. Watch and have a laugh with us.

We’re doing this in the park in the center of Clarkdale, Arizona. The funny thing – after we finished a curious woman approached us. She turned out to be an anthropologist who specialized in human recreation. She really wanted to know what we were doing! After we told her, she explained that children in nearly every culture invent games to alter their state of consciousness. She just didn’t expect to find adults doing it in her local park.

forty

cherylcolan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:10:32 +0000

Last year I decided to stop celebrating birthdays, and instead I decided to start celebrating whenever I grow and become a better person.

But my mom instigated a surprise birthday party on the occasion of my fortieth trip around the sun. She got my six closest friends and my husband to keep the secret and meet up at a roadside diner in Rock Springs, Arizona. I thought I was just going to meet my mom for lunch. Instead a whole bunch of wonderful happened.

And I feel like a better person than I did yesterday. Sometimes your friends and family have to remind you.

Thank you.

Especially you, Mom.

All I Can Manage

cherylcolan — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:18:47 +0000

I’ve had a cold or sinus infection the last few days. My lungs fill up at night unless I sleep propped up, so this is my system for getting through the night. Wear grandpa’s Hanes v-neck t-shirt. Slather Vick’s vapor rub on my chest, throat, and under my nose. Keep very soft tissue nearby. Also an inhaler and some water. Prop up on 3 or 4 pillows and cuddle in with my favorite blanket. Oh, and set the alarm – geez! Four hours of sleep, no wonder I’m not improving faster!

Just been exhausted. Shooting video but not enough oomph in me to get it posted. I edited this one mostly in camera, from bed. I love you VloMo!

what up, new media?

cherylcolan — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:34:55 +0000

I now present an opportunity for an organic conversation. I’m sure it will get me into trouble, and I’m very sure I haven’t expressed myself to the best of my ability. But if I wait to do it right or perfectly, it’ll never happen. And while this video is mostly saying what I don’t like right now, I do believe in “be the change you want to see in the world.” So I’m going to find a way to put my vlog where my mouth is, and launch a new project early in 2008.

Comments and video responses welcome. Talk to me.

Keep it in context, too. Check out the sites I mentioned:

BScrabble

cherylcolan — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 05:41:13 +0000

My mom and I invented an enjoyable, quick-playing version of Scrabble (with apologies to Milton Bradley). If you hate the agonizing wait while your opponent tries to make a triple-word-scoring word out of a letter set with no consonants, you will love our version. If you can’t spell, you will love our version. If you are a born storyteller (or BS-er), you will love our version. We played it three or four times last weekend, and documented one of the games so we could share it with you. I think it took us about ten minutes to play all the available letters.

The rules are pretty simple:

You may not play any real words
Your fake words must be somewhat plausible
You must provide a pronunciation and definition for the words you play

Being good at BS makes BScrabble pretty fun, and being bad at BS makes it super fun! How can you not like our way?!

Bonus link for context: ze frank’s take on Scrabble